Malala Yousafzai revealed she married her partner Asser Malik on Tuesday in a surprise social media update. “Today marks a precious day in my life,” the activist wrote. “Asser and I tied the knot to be partners for life.” She and Malik, who works as a general manager of the Pakistan Cricket Board’s High Performance Centre according to his Twitter, “celebrated a small nikkah ceremony at home in Birmingham with our families.” Yousafzai asked for prayers and said she was “excited to walk together for the journey ahead.”

Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate in history, survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban in 2012. The attack was in retaliation for her rise to prominence as an outspoken advocate for girls’ rights to education. She told British Vogue earlier this year that until she attended Oxford University and watched her friends begin to settle down, she had thought she would never get married. “I didn’t realize that you’re not the same person all the time,” Yousafzai said. “You change as well and you’re growing.”